02/01/11: Kuhuma survivors

It has been four and a bit years I have watched this pride of lions flourish, expand, collapse and hopefully make a bit of a come back.

After the then ruling Mapogo coalition had finished destroying any lions they cold find the remnants of the Kuhuma Pride disappeared back north into Manyaleti. With sparse sightings of them and usually only on the Manyaleti border, we did on occasions see two of the lionessí, one of which was Snaggle tooth and possibly her mom or aunt, hook up with two of the Mapogo males on the odd occasion they would whack a buffalo on our driving area.
But they have not been seen for a very long time now and have not been seen with the females who have now hooked up with Kijima males. Some of which I knew as babes, now beautiful lionessís. The male lionís importances are often underestimated, and personally doubt we have learnt to fully understand the intricacies of their importance. But through dependence on ancient wisdom, intelligence or just plain instinct the Kijima males have managed to maintain a presence out of the reaches of the testosterone driven chaos which has unfolded to the south of their range.
These two male lions are exactly what the lionessís need to begin the expansion of their previous range; so far they have managed to produce two male cubs, between four females both the progeny of the Kajima Males. This low number would seem to indicate that all their troubles are not only in the south of their territory as they too are surrounded buy more lion territory and have heard of other coalitions to the east and north of Kijima land.
Of late these males have been making slow inroads southwards and heave been heard roaring close to Vuyatela making their presence known. So far the Machingilaan Males have not been up this direction but I am sure it will be on the cards in the not to distant future. For now the Huma lioness who have survived the transition of the males are still operating on the northern edges of our traversing area and are slowly starting to look, little by little, more like a pride.
With the state of lions in Africa, a growing pride is another hope for the future and always nice to see.